Our publisher says no to coreopsis. Which plants will you never plant again?
For the month of November, we offered up a list of 30 great plants for northern gardens. Many readers seemed to agree with the choices, but what about those not-so-great plants?
Northern Gardener publisher Tom McKusick offers his list of plants he will never grow again here: “Hollyhocks, foxglove, lupine, delphinium, hardy mum, astilbe, coreopsis, (though I hear there’s a new one that’s really great), pinks, (hate the foliage color) and poppy.”
What about you? Which plants will you never grow again!?
I will never plant Campanula ‘Cherry Berry’ (Bellflower) again. I love the blooms but it spreads fast. Neither will I put Lamium in a perennial bed. It spreads and kills other perennials. On the other hand, Lamium is great under trees where not much else will grow.
I was okay with your list Tom until I got to the coreopsis, pinks and poppies. Those are three of my favorites! Zagreb coreopsis looks good all season long, the Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Feuerhexe’ (cottage pinks) was Perennial of the Year in 2006 and nothing is more beautiful than a bed of pink and red annual poppies in bloom in late spring.
C’mon Tom!
Terry, I’ve given up on these for different reasons; for example, coreopsis and poppies because I haven’t had much luck growing them, and pinks for their appearance–though I promise to give them another look next spring!
Sweet Woodruff…cute foliage and flowers but it gets into everything. A lot of the Sweet Woodruff in my garden did not survive last winter’s crazy weather. Thank you Mother Nature! I spent a lot less time pulling up that plant this season.